(F) Underground! -- APA

[KEG]

[KEG]

Have Fun

Juergen

[KEG]

It is about time, to get some light into my caves. At the moment I can only effort to hire a worker with a flickering torch:



More pictures of my APA Box caves are here:

I used mainly a mixture of salt and flour on a styofoam base for the rocks. Dyed the mictures with pigments or / and Nesquick chocolate powder. Takes about a week to dry but is cheap and amazing.

Have Fun

Juergen

[KEG]

I found the mixture at the local Kindergarten. After all, it only costs less than one Euro for 2 Kilos of modelling material. Some folks say, it tends to collect moisture from the surrounding after drying, so I might have to seal it with a suitable varnish.

At the moment I am trying to find suitable lighting. With room / exibition light it is too dark and too grey inside of an APA Box. On the other hand, bright flood light is not really something, you´d expect in a cave.





I suppose, light and colour design will keep me busy for a while. One thing is certain, it is almost impossible, to show the beauty of a cave on photographs. Whenever you change the light, colours and shadows are changing as well in a dramatic way.

Meanwhile an earthquake broke away part of one of the cave´s walls.



The inside of the APA Box looks a lot larger now.

Have Fun

Juergen

[KEG]

I do have sources for special effect LEDs, but do not really aim at a Disco or Disney Land lighting.



A window or an arch with a picture of the world outside is a common theatre trick to create the illusion of depth. After all, APA Boxes Dioramas are only (very small) 3-D pictures, a miniature stage more or less.

In my case, I simply glued a print of an early 19th century painting (Andreas Achenbach, 1834) to the rear wall, covered it with plastic from a shopping bag, before modelling the flour / salt rocks. When dry, I removed the plastic cover to reveal the backdrop.

Have Fun

Juergen.

[KEG]

Recently I tried to combine the end loops of my deskop layout with an APA Box, I built 2 years ago. .



The idea is, to have an extra track, maybe with a fiddle yard, behind the box(es).

Have Fun

Juergen

[Maddog]

[KEG]

Thanks for the hint. But I gave my two underground cave APA Boxes away.
For my purposes, the APA Boxes proofed to be too small.

We are using larger boxes for our diorama modules.


Have Fun

Juergen